SUORE PROJECT
Pronounced /ˈswɔ.re/ or Soo-WOH-reh
Suore = Nuns
Project = A Collaborative Enterprise, but also, To Extend Outward
The three members of Suore Project, colleagues for over a decade in the internationally acclaimed ensemble SIREN Baroque, have formed a trio celebrating music composed by nuns through the ages. The Project’s research, transcriptions, performances and recordings accentuate a body of music still largely concealed from the general public. For centuries, silence in women—especially cloistered women—was codified. Through their virtuosic music, we aim to propel their voices over the convent walls.
Cloistered in our own way during the Covid-19 pandemic, we found in each other reliable weekly collaborators, rehearsing online from three different states. The resulting program (NON TACERE: (Re)sounding Works by Nun Composers of 17th-c. North Italy) featured composers who labored in a climate where they were both celebrated and censored. The nuns adapted to fluctuating resources and fickle prohibitions of church authorities. Some performed and published amidst restrictions and outright bans on musical expression in their religious communities. Their tenacity inspired us to build this program despite our separation.
Since we recorded NON TACERE in San Francisco in 2021, Suore Project has delighted audiences throughout the Northeastern US. We have been awarded multiple residencies at Avaloch Farm Music Institute (2022, 2023, 2024) in support of our forthcoming modern edition of Rosa Giacinta Badalla’s motets. While we began with Italian nuns of the 16th and 17th century, our current repertory spans eras and empires. Our current concert (THE ECSTATIC & THE DIVINE: Music from convents) stretches back to the earliest known woman composer with surviving works—9th-c. hymnographer Kassia of Byzantium—to 12th-c. superstar Hildegard of Bingen and into the 21st century with Ethiopian composer Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou. Attendant research into the life, spirituality, and performance and publishing history of each composer feeds our performance practice.
Kassia’s words guide us: “I hate silence when it is time for speaking.”
Anneke Schaul-Yoder
Anneke Schaul-Yoder performs in both period-instrument and modern ensembles at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, BAM, the 92StY, and other venues. Anneke plays with the Suore Project, Piano Music & Song Trio, Eudemonia, and Siren Baroque; she has also performed with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Live from Lincoln Center, and the Britten Centenary Quartet. Anneke has recorded with the Lumineers, Shawn Mendes, and members of Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio, and Antibalas. Green Age, her recording of cello sonatas by Bohuslav Martinu and Jordan McLean, is available through System Dialing Records. She studied with Julia Lichten and Marcy Rosen at Yale, SUNY Purchase, and Mannes College of Music. Anneke plays on a French cello from 1713 by Jacques Boquay.
Kelly Savage
Kelly has been praised by the New York Times for her “deft accompaniment.” She is the artistic director of SIREN Baroque and is a founding member of the New York opera company Opera Feroce. Ms. Savage enjoys an active performing schedule as a continuo player and solo harpsichordist. She is an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music where she teaches ear training. Ms. Savage holds a doctorate from Stony Brook University, where she studied with Arthur Haas and holds masters degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Wisconsin—Madison. She co-created Partifi, a popular online part-making tool for musicians.
Brett Umlauf
For over a decade, Brett brought her "pealing, focused sound" and "luminous yet earthy" (New York Times) performances to NYC with MORNINGSIDE OPERA, COMPANY XIV and SIREN BAROQUE. The Swedish Institute, American Scandinavian Society and Swedish Women's Educational Association awarded her BELLMAN OM BELLMAN and SKID ROCOCO shows about C.M. Bellman, "Sweden’s Shakespeare." She premiered Kate Soper’s HERE BE SIRENS (Peitho) and THE HUNT (Fleur). Her travel-performance project HAZELNUT ROAD recently won her a Fulbright Fellowship to Greece and Turkey to research 9th-c. hymnographer Kassia of Byzantium. She co-produced the film KASSIA SOUND ICON, as well as O HOW HAPPY THE BRIDE for SUORE PROJECT’s recording of a little-known gem by 17th-c. nun composer Rosa Giacinta Badalla.
"Amare et silere, cor, tentas impossibile…”
“Heart, you try in vain to love and be silent…”
-from Bianca Maria Meda’s Cari Musici trans. R. Kendrick